


Mama Was A Beestinger: Rhalia

by ThatJoser



Series: Mama Was A Beestinger [2]
Category: Acquisitions Inc.
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-04-23 15:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14335332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatJoser/pseuds/ThatJoser
Summary: Valen and Joey have a mother.





	1. Chapter 1

Rhalia's life was turned upside-down the night The Orc Lord of Laerhaven attacked her home town. Lander, Captain of the City Guard; her husband and father to their 10-year-old son, Valen, was killed in the attack. As the Orc Lord's raiders ransacked the town, Rhalia hid Valen away in their home before being captured and taken prisoner to be used as a slave in Laerhaven's dungeons. Using a warlock's powers, she, and the rest of the slaves, were kept under control. If one tried to escape, a location spell would easily track them down and punishment would be severe.

 

As time went on in the dungeons, Rhalia became hardened by her mistreatment. She spent her time studying the filth and scum that inhabited the city of Laerhaven. A thief and charlatan named Jakobi was also imprisoned after trying to cheat a trader in town. Rhalia grew close to him and learned many skills and tricks. They learned the nature of the spells and traps used to keep the slaves under control. They learned the limitations and extent of those as well.

 

Her heart mourned for her home and family but Jakobi was a much needed helping hand. Soon she became pregnant. She knew that there would be no chance of survival for her child should she be discovered. She feigned injuries and illnesses- just enough to keep her from working but not to be considered useless- to keep her pregnancy secret. The orcs were ruthless but they were not that smart. On the final night of her pregnancy, Jakobi did the unthinkable for her. He attempted an escape in order to distract the guards long enough from the cries of the child being born; and to buy Rhalia enough time to smuggle her away from the city.

 

Rhalia had connections outside the city walls. An entity known only as "Grandmother Night" had kept her and Jakobi supplied with tools and food while they were imprisoned. A troupe of travling lightfoot halflings was dispatched to help smuggle a package out of Laerhaven's dungeons. The package they received was not the one they were expecting. It was an infant girl named Joy Beestinger. As Rhalia watched her daughter taken away to safety, she turned and ran back towards Jakobi's planned escape route. She arrived in time to see Jakobi on his knees, captured by the barbaric guards. She watched in horror as he turned to her and winked just as a sword was plunged into his chest. She knew not to scream. She only cried.

 

Years passed and finally, it was time. Under the cover of darkness, Rhalia led a small group of slaves through the sewers but not towards the outside walls. They emerged in the basement of Laerhaven's fortified hall. They slaughtered the bodyguards in silence. They butchered the warlock in his sleep. Only the Orc Lord remained. Rhalia would slice his throat herself. She was cold and unfeeling as the life seeped from the wound and onto the filthy sheets of the giant bed. The Orc Lord was no more. They were slaves, no more.

 

"Mother. Forgive me. You raised me better than this." She muttered as a small figure met her outside the town walls. The smell of baked goods and honey met her nostrils.

"Nonsense, child." The halfling woman stepped into the moonlight. "I raised you to fight for what you believe in and do what is right. The same things you taught your own child, whom you should see, by the way. He's so handsome!"

"Valen is alive?!" Rhalia's knees buckled and she fell in front of her mother. "But.. I had not thought of him- I didn't believe he could be.." Her mother's small hand on her shoulder steadied her.

"Alive and well. As is.. Joey?" She added.

"Joey?" Rhalia looked puzzled for a second but smiled again as tears streamed down her face. "Joy. Her name is Joy. My Joy." She closed her eyes and remembered the words of Jakobi. _"You are my joy."_

"Go to them, my dear sweet child."

"Yes, mama." Rhalia breathed in her first deep breath of freedom in very long. "I will go to my children. Thank you for everything, mama. I love you."

"I love you, too." Said the small woman, holding a staff out for Rhalia to take. "You'll need this." She smiled. "Oh! And these. You look hungry, dear, eat before you set out." She handed Rhalia a sweet-smelling bundle wrapped in an elegant kerchief and with that, seemed to disappear into the shadows.

Rhalia smiled and sighed as she looked up to the heavens. She would need money to travel.. and armor.. and more weapons. She knew just where to go.


	2. The Giants (A Bedtime Story for Valen)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhalia tells Valen a bedtime story.

“Tell me a story, mama.”

 

“All right but just one and then you must go to bed.”

 

“but papa’s not home yet!”

 

“Valen Beestinger-Drache, you know your father always has the last watch on 10th nights.”

 

“I miss him.”

 

Rhalia gently kisses Valen’s forehead as she takes a seat on the floor next to Valen’s small bed. The hearth’s flames crackle in the living room, casting just enough light through the door to see Valen’s practiced pouty expression.

 

“You say that every time.” She smiles and smooths his hair over his forehead.

 

“Well, it’s true every time.” He retorts with a fake huff.

 

“You’ll see him in the morning. Just like always.” She leans back against the wall by the headboard and looks towards the open window, the stars look back from their celestial perch.

 

“Mama?” Valen turns on his side and watches Rhalia for a moment but she gives him a reassuring smile as she turns her attention back to him.

 

“Have I told you the one about the giants that created the world?” She asks, knowingly.

 

“No!” he responds curiously.

 

“Well, listen, my dear child. For this is how the stars themselves gave birth to everything and everyone you know.” She places her hand on Valen’s head and gently traces her thumb along his brow. “Before there was anything you know, there was only darkness.”

 

“From this darkness a single tiny speck of light emerged.” She continued, watching Valen’s face for reactions, she loved the way his eyes seemed to mirror her own when she told stories. Like a little mimic, she chuckled internally.

 

“This light was the light of creation and in its very first instance, it pushed the darkness away and grew and expanded outward in every direction as far as could be!” she said, spreading her arms upwards and outwards. “and with the darkness out of the way, life could now exist. More little specks of light could come into the realms. Some of these lights joined others, combining their energies, becoming stronger and bigger. Becoming one. Giant beings of light. Big as the stars themselves. Maybe even bigger..”

 

“Wow..” gasped Valen as he looked wide-eyed from his mother’s face to the stars outside the window.

 

“Yes.” She chuckled. “Wow, indeed.”

 

“These giants were the combined energy of all those little lights and they lived their own lives, shaping and using their light. Their energy. Until they passed.”

 

“How?” asked Valen.

 

“Well,” Rhalia replied, thoughtfully, “Some of them had a short, wild existence. Others had violent ends when they met with another giant. Some lived long lives but they, too, would have to pass on and it was when they passed that they made it possible for us to be born.”

 

“Really? But how?”

 

“The light that made them up was shaped by their existence. The air they breathed became our air. Their bodies became the soil and the land that everything could grow on, their bones, the rocks, and stones, and minerals. Their blood became our waters and oils. In their battles, they forged the metals that we use. In their deaths, our realms were born.”

 

Valen stared out the window, eyes half-closed but struggling to remain wide in astonishment.

 

“They died so that we may get a chance to live.” Rhalia continued. “What was left of their light are the stars that we see, including our sun."

 

“And the Homeward star?” Valen asked, as he lost the fight to keep his eyes open and let our a long, tired yawn.

 

“and the Homeward Star, little one.” Smiled Rhalia as she hummed her lullaby’s melody again. "and that's why the lives we have are so precious." She said, turning to Valen's sleepy face. "Why you're so precious, my little light."

 

“Goodnight, mama.” Whispered Valen as he drifted off to sleep.

 

“Goodnight, my baby boy.” She whispered back and leaned in, kissed him softly on his forehead, and leaned back against the wall, watching the stars. She continued humming her song as she watched the Homeward Star itself come into view as the night grew darker. She thought of her husband out doing his rounds. She thought of her mother.

 

“I love you.” She said, as she closed her eyes for a moment, as she did every 10th night; sitting on the floor next to her child’s bed.


End file.
